Published 11:00 am, Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Students at the University of Texas at Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering have been encouraged over the last couple of years to undertake interdisciplinary research.

"It's not just science, it's politics, it's law," said Tad Patzek, chairman of the Department of Petroleum Geosystems Engineering during a visit to Midland Tuesday. "So much is related to law, regulation, policy. Think about the lizard" - the Dune Sagebrush Lizard that was the subject of a public rally to oppose its being listed as an endangered species and a public hearing on the issue. "It's being used as a symbol that's larger than the lizard. Both sides are saying opposite things. I think there are ways to protect the lizard while continuing operations. It can be done and more easily than you think. No one wants to knowingly kill the lizard nor do they want to cost jobs. The key is to always involve local people - they live here, they work here and unless they're convinced it's a good thing to protect the animal, they'll resist."

While in Midland, Patzek, along with Greg Fenves, dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering and John Halton, assistant dean, met with 10 students from Midland and Odessa - eight from Midland high schools and two from Odessa - who had been accepted to the school. Fenves said the growth in the program that began with the rising fortunes of the oil and gas industry has left the school struggling with a lack of resources and space.

Halton described the school's strategic plan, which calls for construction of the Engineering Education and Research Center, a 420,000 square foot interdisciplinary building with space for laboratories, teaching and interdisciplinary work. The plan, he said, has been approved by the Board of Regents and design of the building is expected to be complete next year. Then, he said, the regents will have to approve the design and funding for construction. If all goes well, he said, the hope is to have the building completed by 2015.

"We have very high demand for engineers," Fenves said. "Research and technology development has, and continues to improve production. It crosses many disciplines." At the research level, he said, "there are very few boundaries."

The university, Fenves said, "will never be able to educate all the engineers Texas will need." The school, he said, must look at ways to meet different needs - workforce education, world class research and ways to license and commercialize that new technology to foster entrepreneurship. The school, an economic impact study found, contributes $1.3 billion to the state domestic product and $74 million in tax revenues, almost twice the revenues it receives from the state. Of the 1,000 bachelor of science, 400 master's degree and 200 doctorate recipients each year, Fenves said three-quarters stay in Texas and contribute to the state economy.

"We learned a tough lesson," he said. "We know it's dangerous and now we need to figure out where to go from here. There already is support for offshore drilling; it's also clear to almost everyone else that if we want to produce a significant portion of our own oil, (the Gulf) is where it will come from. The Gulf produces about 40 percent of the oil produced in the United States; we cant just give that up easily."

The school, he quickly noted, is also paying a lot of attention to resource plays, "how to drill cheaply and keep them producing longer."

The three noted the school's close ties to Midland - and their frequent visits to the Permian Basin. Approximately 294 West Texas students, 116 from Midland, are enrolled at UT Austin, 56 of them at Cockrell, including 28 Midlanders. Of the incoming class, 295 are from West Texas, 41 to study engineering, including nine of 49 from Midland.

"Midland has been a key part of developing the University for almost a century," Halton said, citing the Santa Rita No. 1 drilled on university-owned lands.